10 countries hoarding enormous piles of gold

Last week, the shiny metal officially entered a bull market, defined as a 20% rally off recent lows.

But investors aren't the only ones feeling gold: central banks just can't get enough of the shiny metal either.

According to the latest report from the World Gold Council, central banks added 336.2 tonnes of gold to their reserves in the second half of 2015, up from 252.1 tonnes in the first half of the year.

"Central banks added to their gold reserves with renewed vigor in the second half of 2015, accelerating their purchasing programs as diversification of foreign reserves remained a top priority," reported the World Gold Council.

"Economic and political risks remained stubbornly high: plunging oil prices, conflict in the Middle East, and China’s economic slowdown, to name just a few. Against this background, official sector institutions continued to recognize the need for diversification of their reserve asset portfolios," the report added.

Using the WGC's data, we put together a list of the biggest gold hoarders out there. Check them out below.

10. India

Back in November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that he wanted to "tap the stockpiles of the precious metal to trim physical demand and reduce imports by providing people with alternative avenues for investment," according to Bloomberg.

9. Netherlands

The Dutch central bank reportedly might move more than 189 tonnes of gold (worth over $7 billion) from vaults in Amsterdam. "The central bank is looking at the possibility of storing its reserves in a regular office building outside of the city," Forbes reported.

5. China

China Daily/Reuters

Official gold holdings: 1762.3 tonnes

Percent of foreign reserves in gold: 1.8%

"The most significant development of H2 was the announcement that China’s central bank had accumulated over 600t during the preceding six years. While this took some by surprise, the increase was in line with our estimate and was already fully accounted for in our data, which has consistently allocated an amount to Chinese official sector demand. Hence, no revision was required to our historical series," noted the WGC report.

3. Italy

Reuters/Alessandro Garofalo

Official gold holdings: 2451.8 tonnes

Percent of foreign reserves in gold: 64.0%

In 2013, the Italian central bank argued that gold reserves were key to independence.

"... historic ... and psychological reasons, stand in favor of gold's importance as a component of central bank reserves," director general of the bank, Salvatore Rossi, said. "Gold underpins the independence of central banks in their ability to (act) as the ultimate bearer of domestic financial stability."

2. Germany

"Germany took more than 200 tones of its gold back to Frankfurt from overseas in 2015, as it moves towards hoarding half of the world's second-largest reserve at home," according to AAP.

"In the wake of the eurozone crisis, many ordinary Germans want to see more of the 3,381 tonnes of gold in vaults at home and some have even questioned whether it still exists, prompting the Bundesbank to recently publish a long list of gold bars," the AAP added.